Music Education promotes Readiness…

My Kindermusik friend and fellow educator Lori Burkhardt shared with me the following article. It is very revealing in it’s focus on music and movement in preparing your child for school.

In a report from researchers at the FPG Child Development Institute in Chapel Hill, NC, Yazejian and Peisner-Feinberg (2002) state:

Music and movement experiences are often viewed as secondary to activities and material linked more directly with the development of language and cognitive skills — skills associated with conventional definitions of school readiness. Recent research, however, suggests that music and movement experience can promote these broader developmental competencies as well.

Research is now establishing the link between music education and school readiness, defined by the National Education Goals Panel across the following developmental domains:

1. Physical Well-Being and Motor Development – As some of childhood’s most active learning, music and movement activities promote fine motor skills as found in finger games, large motor skills as in dancing and marching to music, as well as the sensorimotor, eye-hand coordination skills required in playing small instruments.